Square Wave

<p>American democracy is on its knees. The upcoming election could well be the last and the nation is braced for internal conflict.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile on urban patrol a nightwatchman discovers the latest in a series of prostitutes beaten and left for dead by a mysterious assailant.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile his research into his family's past leads him to Sri Lanka under colonialism with all its echoes of factional divisions and authoritarian rule.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile his colleague is implicated in a scheme to reverse-engineer storm dispersal technology and weaponise the weather.</p><p><br></p><p>Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile: from its basis in a dystopian future and its focus on one man in pursuit of another Square Wave expands its scope and expands again-into history musicology geopolitics-to observe the varieties of decay that emerge from the militarisation of the human mind. The result is a novel that KCRW's Michael Silverblatt calls the most extraordinary debut in fiction that I've encountered in many years... even when I had to suspend comprehension and travel beyond my comfort zone.</p>